The Conservative Party through Kemi Badenoch, has announced a bold new immigration strategy to deport 750,000 illegal immigrants within five years — a move that has drawn comparisons to former U.S. President Donald Trump’s hardline deportation policies.
Unveiled at the party’s annual conference in Manchester, the plan seeks to overhaul the UK’s asylum and deportation system, with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch vowing to restore control over Britain’s borders.
Under the proposals, anyone entering the UK illegally would be permanently banned from claiming asylum. The government would also strip failed applicants of the right to challenge deportation decisions in court, with appeals instead handled directly by Home Office officials.
Central to the plan is the creation of a new “Removals Force” to replace the Home Office’s existing immigration enforcement unit. The new unit would receive an additional £820 million annually — doubling its budget — and be tasked with removing at least 150,000 people each year, including illegal residents, new arrivals, and foreign nationals convicted of serious crimes.
Badenoch told the BBC that those without legal status “should go back to where they came from” or to another “safe” country willing to accept them. “We cannot have a situation where we cannot deport people because we don’t know where they will go,” she said. “That is a defeatist attitude, and I will not have that.”
The Tories said the increased budget would be financed by closing asylum hotels, arguing that the savings could fund enforcement expansion. To speed up deportations, the government plans to expand detention facilities capable of holding up to 2,000 migrants at a time.
The proposals would also limit asylum eligibility to those persecuted by their governments, excluding people fleeing wars or restrictive laws on religion or sexuality.
In a major judicial shake-up, the Conservatives plan to abolish the Immigration Tribunal, transferring appeal decisions to Home Office staff, while also ending taxpayer-funded legal aid for immigration cases. A party document stated that lawyers would “no longer be needed” because claims would be “fairly assessed against clear criteria.”
The Conservatives also confirmed plans to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to prevent asylum seekers from using it to block deportations. The move, Badenoch said, would ensure Parliament’s authority could not be overridden by “activist judges.”
The announcement comes amid mounting pressure from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which has made similar pledges to remove the UK from the ECHR and deport 600,000 migrants. Badenoch insisted her party’s approach was more credible, citing legal backing from former justice minister Lord Wolfson of Tredegar.
In her opening speech at the Manchester conference, Badenoch rallied party members around a message of national unity and cultural preservation. “Nations cannot survive on diversity alone,” she said. “We need a strong common culture rooted in our history, our language, and our belief in liberty under the law. That is why borders matter — and why culture matters.”
The plan sets up a clear political clash with the Labour government, which has chosen to remain in the ECHR but is also promising tougher measures to deter illegal Channel crossings.
